


Dinner Date

by DustyForgotten



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Awkward Dates, F/M, First Dates, Propositions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 03:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13515339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyForgotten/pseuds/DustyForgotten
Summary: Found an old piece I meant to delete; figured someone might enjoy it.





	Dinner Date

**Author's Note:**

> Found an old piece I meant to delete; figured someone might enjoy it.

Two knocks to the doorframe, and an irritable exhale in response. “What is it?”

“Dinner time,” the Courier replies.

Hsu looks up from his paperwork, and it takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the clock. “Past it,” he notes.

“Maybe, but a Colonel’s gotta eat.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” he agrees, standing, “I’ll head down to the mess hall.” When he turns, there’s a plate thrust towards him. He takes it tentatively. “… Thanks.”

“No problem.” The Courier— Erin she’d said when they met— grins, and takes her own meal to the small table in his office. It’s not like there’s any better company to be had, so he sits quietly across from her, an industrial coffee maker directly between them.

The meat’s not burned to hell, and he spies pepper in the mashed potatoes. “This isn’t Farber’s cooking.”

“Well, Colonel very well can’t do his job with indigestion.” He has to lean almost forty-five degrees to see her around the coffee maker, cutting a strip from her steak. She meets his eyes, and shrugs with the fork. “I cleaned a couple geckos and figured you wouldn’t mind the leftovers.”

He smiles a little tiredly, and ducks back behind the coffee maker so he can get to eating. He’s not sure if it’s good, but it’s better than he’s used to, so he’s not going to think too hard about it. There’s a calm quiet broken only by silverware and teeth.

And, eventually, Erin. “You’re a good man, Colonel.”

Colonel Hsu sets his fork on the side of the plate, and scoots his chair a few inches to the side, just enough to see her. “Okay, what do you want?”

She draws a bite away from her mouth, and moves the fork when she speaks. “I’m just saying. Been chatting around the camps, everyone thinks you should be General. Oliver knows it, and that’s why you’re stuck here.”

He stares silently, chin on his palm. “Really, what is it?”

She sighs. “Bitter Springs needs reinforcements.”

Hsu smiles in his success. “With our saboteur taken care of… yeah, I can do that.” Appetite eager, he scoops some of the potatoes. “Didn’t have to make me dinner to get troops moved…”

“Didn’t have to flatter you, either. Just felt like it.” Hsu glances up just in time to see the soft smile before she takes a bite.

He’s still skeptical, but his gecko’s getting cold. She’s playing at something, has to be. They’ve never had a conversation about anything but— 

“You married?”

— work. Hsu raises his eyebrows, but isn’t about to waste precious eating time talking, so he holds up his left hand, bare ring finger. “Ah. Seeing anyone, though?” Not hiding his incredulity, Hsu shakes his head slowly.

She skewers a bite while she casts, “Yeah, me either. Busy, you know?”

He snorts, swallows, and says, “Oh, I know.” Hsu leaves his fork stuck upright in the meat as he describes, “I don’t get involved with subordinates, and I don’t have the time for leave. As the highest ranking officer at McCarran, do you have any idea how long it’s been for me?”

Erin reaches across the tiny, crowded table, and covers his hand with hers. “I am so sorry for you.”

He eyes the pale, callused hand, and notes, “Laying it on a little thick, there.”

“Am I?” she replies innocently, but she relaxes under his withering look. “Look, we’re both adults in relationship limbo, so I figured…”

Hsu glances at the clock. “Yeah, I got time.”

She looks a bit like a legionnaire in a whorehouse. “Well… That was easy. You’re a cheap date, Colonel.”


End file.
